


it's you (I welcome death with)

by gummyfang



Category: Death Note (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Afterlife, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canonical Character Death, Hopeful Ending, M/M, lawlight
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-28
Updated: 2020-12-28
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:21:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 757
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28386927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gummyfang/pseuds/gummyfang
Summary: "R-Ryuzaki..?" Light manages to croak out of his raw windpipes."Hello Light." the man responds simply.Light didn't anticipate for his past to literally come back and haunt him.———Or the one where L talks to Light in his dying moments, and they have something resembling resolution.
Relationships: L/Yagami Light
Kudos: 79





	it's you (I welcome death with)

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [time to say farewell](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27568603) by [nhtklfse3](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nhtklfse3/pseuds/nhtklfse3). 



There was something rather pitiful about the end.

Light Yagami's dying body was splayed as if it was in a renaissance painting. A God dying on a slab of mundanity, just a nondescript flight of stairs thousands have walked on prior and thousands will walk on long after. Soon, Light's blood will become a distant memory, faded and scrubbed clean. 

Light can't quite distinguish if he feels any regret about the course he chose in his twenty-three years, or if death simply made you more sentimental about life. 

" _Oh well._ " he thinks, " _All won't matter in a few moments. After all, Ryuk promised a return to nothingness._ "

As the edges of his world start to blur, Light looks up to the steps above him, and sees something vibrant take shape and definition. A phantom haloed by the smear of everything behind him.

"R-Ryuzaki..?" Light manages to croak out of his raw windpipes. 

"Hello Light." the man responds simply.

Light didn't anticipate for his past to literally come back and haunt him. 

"You died." Light states blankly, no longer speaking with his throat. Not quite a statement, but not quite a question either. 

"You're pretty near there as well, my friend." L says pointedly.

At that, Light's winces as his pain sharply comes into focus. He can feel the life draining from his body, and for the first time in years he feels utterly, painfully, human.

"I don't want to die." Light says, showing something almost akin to vulnerability.

"Neither did I, Light."

Light hums, considering L's words.

"That fact didn't seem to factor into your decision to kill me, however." L finishes, a matter-of-factly.

"I had to do it to win." Light explains, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. 

"I wanted to win too, quite badly." L points out, looking off into the distance towards nothing in particular. "But i'm sure you were aware of that fact."

L continues on,

"Time passes differently afterwards. I've had extensive time to mull over and process every detail of our encounters. But I also somehow feel as if it happened merely a half hour ago. It's quite strange."

"So you had the time to mull over your failure?" Light says leeringly.

"No." L deadpans, "I had the time to come to conclusions about two things. First, that neither of us won our little game. And second, that our fates seem inexplicably tied up in one another, Light Yagami."

Light's eyes widen, taken aback by L's bluntness. But he decides to ignore the more genuine admission in favor of circling back to the original point.

"So you're saying neither of us won?"

"The game you're speaking of no longer exists, Light," L says, "Theres nothing to win. You're wrong and you'll always remain wrong. All that's left is to move forward."

"Move forward where?" Light questions, "I thought I ceased to exist once my life ended."

"It would seem awfully strange if someone so entangled in death couldn't fully experience it."

Light grins at that, beginning to feel his heart slow like a clock about to break. 

_Tick tock, tick tock._

As his surroundings aside from L begin to morph into nothing, Light ponders what his wings would've felt like had he gotten the chance to have them. He wonders if Ryuk remembers their discussion about it.

_Tick tock, tick tock._

Everything has gone fuzzy, and Light is struck by how dying feels an awful lot like flying.

_Tick tock, tick-_

And in an instant, Light feels startlingly weightless. He arises from the ground, slowly, and looks L dead in his dark and sunken eyes.

Spending an afterlife with L is a concept that would have infuriated Light to no end while he was living. But in the midst of his post-death existence, Light feels a wave of clarity wash over him. And he realizes there really was no one else who could take L's place in spending an indeterminate eternity with him. There really was no one else other than L.

So Light tries honesty for a change.

"It wasn't the same once you were gone, you know?" Light admits.

The corner of L's mouth curls upwards in a smile.

"Of course it wasn't, my presence is a gift you took for granted."

L outstretches his pale hand towards Light, an invitation for him to take it.

Light accepts, feeling a jolt of something new where the tips of their fingers meet.

"Where are we going?" Light asks.

L smiles in earnest now,

"Somewhere new."

\---

**Author's Note:**

> My own take on the trope of Light seeing L in his final moments, I hope the ending what somewhat hopeful? I can't believe I got back into Death Note in 2020, but here we are.


End file.
